Silicon Cast Forms for SNES D-Pad
I wondered if it would be possible to cast a replacement for an old SNES controller. These rubbers have four button contact pads which are responsible for the tactile feedback of the Controller D-Pad as well as triggering the Butten. The haptic feedback is generated with a cone that has 0,4mm wallthickness which kinks when you press the putton and afterwards springs back.
I actually was very shure this project would fail because of the low tolerances you have, given the 0,4mm wallthickness and a two part mold. But what do you now, it worked! Besides me placing the risers and inlet for the silcone not optimal it came out as a very nice proof of concept.
Here is an overview of the three molds printed with a 0,25mm Nozzle.
Black: PLA, 0,1mm
Clear: PLA 0,05mm
Red: PETG, 0,1mm
The Clear Parts on the Bottom are the injection molded ones, the brown one is the original. I damaged two as i opened the mold because the risers tore to hard on the thin walls.
The Molds were screwed together with M3 Screws and sealed with a o-ring strip. I injected the silicone with a syringe, that worked very well.
Here are some Makro Shots of the Mold parts and the resulting parts:
I am already sorry for the bad image quality but i could not get my phone to focus on a clear Silicon part...
I printed these parts with my MK2 and created the CAD Modell with FreeCAD. I could not resist creating this post because i find it so awesome that my MK2 can hold the tolerances neccessary for this project. 🙂